‘Main point of Putin's proposal is to avoid a new confrontation over Ukraine'

There is support in Europe and Russia to avoid further confrontation over Ukraine, and the Russian president's road map for the Ukrainian crisis has the same goal, Lawrence Freeman from Executive Intelligence Review Magazine told RT.

RT:The Russian President Putin asked the
south-eastern regions of Ukraine to postpone the planned autonomy
referendum which would take place on May 11. If the autonomy vote
does get delayed, is that a sign of a potential diplomatic way
forward to resolve the conflict?

Lawrence Freeman: I think President Putin is
actually strategically handling the situation quite well because
he knows that there are people who would like to see this
conflict escalate into a major war. So he is outmaneuvering the
people behind this, people around the British Empire crowd and
financial crowd, and he is doing a good job of it. So this
proposal by him is a way of a game avoiding a new confrontation
with people that would like to have it with Russia.

RT:The US State Department still doesn't
think Russia is doing enough. What else do they expect Moscow to
do?

LF: You have to keep in mind that the State
Department and particularly Victoria Nuland have been behind this
coup at the end of last year. These are the people who are
actually running the show, probably more than Obama, he is just a
puppet at this stage. And they want to force the confrontation.
They have been lying about the entire situation since February
21-22 and the truth of matter is the US government, the US State
Department, President Obama supported Nazis, Svoboda and Right
Sector who carried out overthrow of the government. And the lies
coming out of the US New York Times, The Washington Post and
media have nothing telling the truth without who is actually
responsible for the confrontations in Kiev and in the eastern
Ukraine.

RT:And do you think the US and the EU will
make any concessions of their own now, to try and help resolve
the crisis?

LF: Don’t forget there has been an enormous
amount of disagreement with President Obama on how to handle
Russia. This is an all-out war going on inside the German
government, inside the CDU, CSU, inside the German military and
in other countries in Europe that now do not agree with the
sanctions and realize they will be suicidal and destroying their
economies which are already extremely weak because of the
enormous amount of fictitious derivatives that dominate the
banking system. I think that there is support for rational people
in Germany and elsewhere to avoid the further confrontation and I
think they have made it known to President Putin in various
informal ways as well.

RT:Do you think Kiev will continue its
military operation against the people in East Ukraine? Or will
authorities stop it and start negotiations?

LF: They have to if they want to have a country.
They cannot allow neo-Nazis and right-wing fascists to run the
government being part of the military and security operation. If
they want to be a country they can’t do that. The other problem
Ukraine has is that the IMF now is coming in. Every time the IMF
comes to your country, look out. Prices are going to rise,
subsidies are going to be reduced, pensions are going to be
reduced and the IMF will actually end up killing more people than
any other institution if they can get away with it.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.